The role of the enterprise architect in the organisation

Large and mid-sized enterprises have often been forced to develop the IT architect role and call it enterprise architecture – it isn’t. Yet if CIO’s and CEO’s could see the power of having mature and well run enterprise architecture in place then i think (in fact i know) they would not hesitate…….

Not the Enterprise architect

Having worked for and with dozens of enterprises of all shapes and sizes from many different sectors, it still surprises me how immature their enterprise architecture function is. This does not reflect the competency or skills of many who work in this area as i have had the pleasure of working with so many highly skilled people who have enriched my life and i am proud to call my friends.

We can also forgive the leaders who are responsible for the vision and strategy of the enterprise who do their best to set the ship on a course and a vision of a destination while dealing with all of the internal and external factors that continually try and deflect the organisation from its course.

But what if the leaders have a team who can take this vision and help define and reflect a strategy in a well formed, easily understood way then put in place a structured way to align all of the people, the activities they do, supported with the best technology and driven by a continual stream of quality information?

Typically, larger organisations call upon consultancies to help them develop their vision and a strategy that can be of significant benefit to have skilled professionals bring a different perspective, yet without the internal capability to take these outputs and feed them into a well structured and mature enterprise architecture capability, they often and rapidly become shelf-ware.

What does surprise me is that after just a year or two, the whole process repeats itself, often with a change of leadership and the cycle of failure continues. Comically, if the organisation had a mature enterprise architecture function that could use these materials, the value of this process can be what the leaders originally envisioned.

Let me ask you a question – If a customer came to your organisation and wanted to buy your most sophisticated product or service but did not have the skills or experience to use it, would you sell it or would you help the customer develop these skills then sell the product?

The next time you plan to go to a consultancy to help them develop a vision or strategy or help with a major enterprise challenge or opportunity, first make sure that you have the internal capabilities and structures in place to deliver on the proposals – in case i am not making this clear, I am talking here about enterprise architecture.

The power of EA done right

Alignment

Ability to adapt

Clarity and communication of the vision

A clear aligned strategy

The power to empower

Finding an EA

A true enterprise architect is a rare breed who has a depth of understanding that can often only be developed through years of experience and a breadth of skills that span multiple areas that are developed through years of interaction with highly skilled people and an ability to continually learn.

They understand the demands of a leader and are often a leader themselves. They have an uncanny ability to seamlessly abstract complexity when needed and communicate ideas and concepts to a wide range of people from managers to technical people.

Their communication skill allows them to speak and understand complex domain terminology and translate and adapt this to another audience, sharing only the subset of information that is pertinent to the audience.

Living with an EA

Once you find yourself a true enterprise architect and developed a mature enterprise architecture process, you will never go back.